


we'll be counting stars

by blackkat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Genderfluid Naruto, M/M, Multi, aimed at canon's stupidity, and what COULD HAVE BEEN, anti-ending, pretty much a spite fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 20:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13982745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: “Mom! Dad! Father! Someone’s at the door!”“Oh gods,” Sakura mutters, head halfway buried under the pillow. “How did she getyourlungs, Naruto?”There's a sound of tired agreement from her left, though Sasuke doesn’t even attempt to pick his face up out of the mattress.“You're the medic-nin,” Naruto says, amused, and pushes up on one elbow to squint blearily at the bedroom door. “Want to draw straws?”“You're already up,” Sasuke probably says, though even Naruto's ears have a hard time catching it. “And before eight they're your kids.”





	we'll be counting stars

“Mom! Dad! Father! Someone’s at the door!”

“Oh gods,” Sakura mutters, head halfway buried under the pillow. “How did she get _your_ lungs, Naruto?”

There's a sound of tired agreement from her left, though Sasuke doesn’t even attempt to pick his face up out of the mattress.

“You're the medic-nin,” Naruto says, amused, and pushes up on one elbow to squint blearily at the bedroom door. “Want to draw straws?”

“You're already up,” Sasuke probably says, though even Naruto's ears have a hard time catching it. “And before eight they're your kids.”

“What he said,” Sakura agrees, crawling further under her pillow and pulling the blanket up after her.

Naruto huffs at them both, even if it’s mostly for show, and slides out from under the blankets. Sakura hisses like a cat at the sudden onslaught of cold air, but Naruto ignores her offence, grabbing for whatever real clothes are closest at hand and pulling them on as he heads for the door.

Sarada is waiting impatiently in the hall, arms crossed over her chest, glasses pushed up disapprovingly. “There’s someone at the door,” she repeats the moment Naruto can see her, and grabs his hand, tugging him on. “Are Mom and Father getting up?”

“They're still tired from our mission,” Naruto says, but he’s smiling. Sarada looks so much like Sasuke, determination and a little bit of exasperation with the world all wrapped up in the look she gives him, that he can't help but laugh.

“ _You_ don’t look tired,” Sarada tells him.

“That’s because I'm the cool parent,” Naruto confesses, grinning at her, and she breaks down and smiles back. “Okay, I’ll get the door, why don’t you wake Boruto and Himawari up, okay?”

From behind the door they're passing, there's a huff, then a grumpy, “I'm awake already!”

“Morning,” Naruto calls, and gets a loud thump in return, like Boruto just fell out of bed.

Sarada rolls her eyes so hard she’d probably strain something if she wasn’t Sakura and Sasuke's daughter, but lets go of Naruto's hand. “I’ll get Himawari,” she says, and trots back up the hall.

At that moment there's another knock on the front door, light but insistent, and Naruto strangles a groan, hopes with everything he has that they're not being called for another mission, and goes to pull it open.

“Sorry, Naruto,” Ino says, before he even has it all the way open. She’d dressed for T & I, still pulling on her black gloves, expression distracted even though she gives him a quick smile. “I know it’s short notice, but could you make sure Inojin gets to school on time? Sai's still out of the village, and they caught a mole in the records department.”

Peacetime in a ninja village isn’t nearly the same as peacetime in a civilian village, Naruto reflects. He can't quite say he minds it, though. “Sure,” he says. “Inojin’s always sweet.”

Ino snorts. “He’s always on his best behavior for _you_ ,” she says dryly, but leans in and kisses his cheek. “All of you are in one piece? I heard things got messy.”

“We’re fine,” Naruto confirms. “That town is probably going to need a new mountain, though.”

With a laugh, Ino steps back. “Like that’s unexpected, after sending in Team 7,” she teases, says, “Thanks, Naruto,” and is gone in a swirl of leaves.

Soft footsteps pad up behind Naruto, and a small body leans into him. Boruto yawns, still rubbing at his eye, and asks, “Dad? Do you have to leave?”

Naruto loops an arm around his son’s shoulders, pulls him against his side as he turns them both towards the kitchen. “Nope,” he says. “We’re just going to pick up Inojin on our way to the Academy.”

Boruto doesn’t even bother to make a face, the way he normally does, just huffs something and lets Naruto steer him into his chair at the kitchen table. “It’s _early_ ,” he mutters, listing forward to drop his face on the tabletop.

“We get up at the same time every morning,” Sarada points out, bodily pushing Himawari into the kitchen.

Naruto laughs, leaning down to pick up his youngest daughter and whirl her gently around. “Sunshine!” he says brightly, and she laughs, throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing tightly.

“Daddy!” she answers, and when he puts her down in her seat she makes a face. “Can you spin me again?”

“Breakfast first,” Naruto tells her, ruffling her hair lightly. The pout she gives him would be a lot more devastating if he hadn’t seen it on Sakura so many times, so he just chuckles and steps around her to check the fridge. It’s almost entirely bare, unfortunately, and he winces. “Uh, maybe we should go out?”

Boruto groans loudly at that idea, clearly unenthusiastic. Rolling her eyes at him, Sarada offers, “There’s toast, Dad. And Iruka-nii said he would bring us bentos today, since he forgot to buy groceries.”

Iruka is a blessing, Naruto thinks a little sheepishly, and starts dropping slices of bread into the toaster. “That’s nice of him. You're going to say thank you, right?”

“Of course,” Boruto says, muffled and tired. “We’ll tell him you said thanks, too.”

Naruto huffs in mild offence. “I can tell him myself!”

“You’ll get excited about ramen and forget,” Boruto accuses, squinting at him. “Dad, I want cocoa.”

“Not for breakfast,” Naruto tells him, because Sakura has a _thing_ about too much sugar in the mornings, and Naruto is more scared of her than he is of Boruto’s pout. “How about orange juice?”

“Fine,” Boruto says, but he slides out of his seat and heads for the fridge himself, pulling out the jug and then turning to get glasses. “Do you want some too, Dad?”

“Sure.” Naruto watches with a smile as Boruto lines the glasses up, carefully fills each one with the exact same amount. It’s probably a good thing Boruto got Sasuke's brain, he thinks, and the thought is warm and fond and a little wistful. Maybe it’s Minato's brain, too—precise and analytical, good at math and the Academy work. Sakura says it’s because he’s been taught _how_ to learn, and that stable home lives can make a massive difference, and—

Naruto is just unspeakably happy that his son doesn’t get frustrated with things as easily as he does, doesn’t have to come at them sideways and backwards to understand them the way everyone else does.

He starts coffee, because Sakura breathes it in the mornings, debates the merits of bringing his partners back breakfast as he sets out toast for the kids and makes sure they have enough. Sarada might be an early bird, but Boruto and Himawari definitely aren’t, and he keeps half an eye on them so they don’t fall asleep in their breakfasts. It’s a quiet, easy morning, nothing special, but…

This is everything Naruto never had as a kid, everything he wanted so desperately. A family, a warm house, children who look at him and smile without even thinking about it. As he collects backpacks and bags, checking that all of their books are in order, he thinks about how his life has changed in twenty-four years. And maybe that’s how it is for everyone, but Naruto thinks he feels it a little more than most.

“Should we do the dishes, Dad?” Sarada asks, chair scraping across the tile as she rises. Naruto blinks, attention pulled away from the pages of homework he’s sorting, and he looks up.

“No, just leave them in the sink,” he answers. “I don’t have anything else to do today. You and Iruka kept the whole house spotless.”

Boruto comes over to collect the pile with his name on it, and scoffs. “We cleaned it all yesterday,” he says, and it would be grumpy if Naruto didn’t know him so well. “Iruka-nii forgot that you were coming home yesterday, and he started freaking out. Cleaning distracted him.”

Naruto laughs, because that sounds like Iruka. He hasn’t changed at all since he retired. “Well, however it happened, it looks great. Himawari, where’s your other shoe?”

“I hid it!” she says happily, and ducks down under Naruto's feet. He pretends alarm, jerking his legs up as she crawls under the couch, and she giggles as she emerges with her other shoe. “Here!”

Laughing, Naruto sweeps her up, spares a thought to mourn the fact that she’s almost too big to make it easy. “I thought the couch was eating you,” he teases, and tosses her over his shoulder, spins her around once, and then drops her lightly on her feet. “Okay, get your jacket, shoes on.”

Himawari gives him a cheerful salute and trots away, and Naruto grins, reaching out for Boruto, who sees him coming and ducks away with a cry of alarm. “Dad, _no_! I'm not a baby anymore, _don’t_!”

It’s easy enough to scoop him up, tucking him under one arm even as he squirms. “Maybe not,” Naruto agrees sagely, “but you're always going to be _my_ baby.” Ignoring Boruto’s loudly affronted groan, he raises a brow at Sarada, who looks like she’s fighting a smile, and holds out a hand.

Sarada tucks herself against his side without need for further invitation, bookbag bumping against his thigh. “We have a test on sealing today,” she tells him as he steers them towards the front door. “Boruto and I have a bet about who can get the top score.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Baa-chan too much,” Naruto complains. “If your mom hears that you're gambling already—”

“It’s not _gambling_!” Boruto protests, squirming out of Naruto's grip and immediately flopping down to pull his shoes on. “The winner just gets dango.”

Naruto squints at them. “So it’s not gambling, it’s just betting with wagers,” he clarifies, and Boruto goes to agree and then pulls up short, realizing the trap.

“ _Dad_ ,” he complains, rolling his eyes.

With a laugh, Naruto tosses his coat over his head. “Okay, okay. And if you tie, I’ll buy you _both_ dango, how’s that?”

“Okay,” Sarada agrees, smiling a little. “Dad, do you and Mom and Father have another mission soon?”

Halfway into his jacket, Boruto pauses, glancing up with an expression that tries not to be worried. It aches a little, somewhere deep in Naruto's chest, but he shakes his head. “Kakashi-sensei put us on leave for the next month, and there shouldn’t be any emergency missions. We’re not leaving again for a while.”

Sarada takes his hand again, looking relieved, and even though Boruto normally pretends at aloofness, he grabs Naruto's other hand. With a cheer, Himawari leaps at him, and Naruto crouches down so that she can scramble up onto his back. “Okay!” he says. “Everyone accounted for? All pieces present?”

Himawari laughs, looping her arms around his neck. “Let’s go, Daddy,” she says. “Run!”

“We’re not _running_ to school,” Naruto huffs, but he can't stop smiling. Sarada gets the door without letting go of him, and he has to turn sideways as they pass through it so as not to break the chain of hands. Apparently not too old for this game, judging by the grin he’s trying not to show, Boruto closes it after them, then leaps lightly down the steps.

“Come on, Dad!” he urges, and Sarada nods too.

“Please?” she asks, and she’s wearing Sasuke's sad expression, which usually makes an appearance when he’s denied the last slice of tomato. That doesn’t change it’s effectiveness, though, and Naruto groans like he’s reluctant, but tightens his grip on their hands anyway.

“Okay, okay,” he sighs, and calls up a flicker of chakra. Inside of him, Kurama stirs, opening one eye with a huff of amusement, but doesn’t protest. “Everybody ready?”

“Yeah!” Himawari cries, locking her knees around his sides.

“And a one, and a two, and a _three_!” Naruto leaps, carrying all three of the kids with him, and calls up a shunshin, whirling them towards Ino's house in a hurricane of leaves and bright laughter.

 

 

The house is still perfectly quiet when Naruto gets back, letting the door fall softly shut behind him. He shakes his head in amusement, padding into the kitchen to drop off the sealing scroll with his bags of groceries. The coffee is untouched in the pot, so he pours three cups, sweetens his and Sakura’s, and adds a splash of milk to his own and Sasuke's. His stomach grumbles, but he decides food can wait until his partners are conscious, since Sasuke is the better cook anyway.

It’s silent, but the house still doesn’t feel _empty_ , and Naruto smiles to himself, pressing one hand flat to the counter as he breathes it in. He’d never had cause to know the difference, before all of this. Never realized that it _could_ be different. It’s so good, though, knowing it now.

There was a chance, eight years ago, to succeed Tsunade as Hokage when she retired. Naruto had considered it, had stayed up for days wrestling with himself about whether he wanted to or not. But—Boruto had been two, and Sarada had just turned two, and Sasuke and Sakura were always close at hand _but_.

But Naruto had always been lonely, as a child. Had seen all the other children with their parents around them, and his life was so _good_ even without being Hokage. Hokage was never really the goal, for him; he just wanted the respect, the acknowledgement that he mattered. And maybe a part of growing up was finally realizing that, was looking at Sasuke and Sakura and their children and realizing that he was already so perfectly happy that he didn’t _need_ to wear a special hat and sit in an office all day to make his dreams come true.

Maybe, someday, when Himawari is older and Kakashi is ready to step down, Naruto will reconsider. But this is so much more than enough for him right now, and he doesn’t want to change a single thing.

Balancing the mugs, he makes his way back towards the bedroom, then nudges the door open with a hip. There are still two lumps under the blankets, though Sasuke at least has rolled enough that he’s not in immediate danger of suffocation any longer. Naruto has to laugh, and it feels like the sunlight that’s streaming in under the curtains, warm and liquid and bright.

“Geez, when did I become the responsible one?” he asks, setting their cups down on the bedside table and stripping off all of his clothes except his boxers. “You guys are making me do all the work in this house.”

Sakura grunts, but the smell of the coffee is enough to make her fight her way out from under the blankets, getting her elbows under herself and pushing up. She covers a yawn with a hand, already making grabby motions with the other. “Payback,” she manages. “For all the times we’ve pulled your ass out of the fire.”

“Literally,” Sasuke huffs, still not opening his eyes. “You make a terrible virgin sacrifice, dobe.”

Naruto rolls his eyes, passing Sakura her cup and then carefully shifting over her to steal the warm spot in the middle. As soon as he sits down, Sasuke curls against him, dropping his head in Naruto's lap, and Naruto strokes his hair, letting his fingers drift across sleep-warm skin. “I think everyone here knows just how much of a virgin I _wasn’t_ at that point, teme.”

“Which would be why you were terrible at it.” Sakura manages not to spill a drop of her coffee as she pushes up to sit, settling back against the pillows and immediately leaning into Naruto's side. “The kids got off to the Academy all right?”

Naruto hums a confirmation. “Ino asked me to make sure Inojin got there,” he says. “If she’s not done with the mole they caught by this afternoon, I figured he could spend a few hours here.”

“Or the night,” Sakura says firmly. “Sai's still in River Country hunting those jutsu thieves, right?”

Sasuke grunts, pressing his face more firmly into Naruto's thigh. “We’re not running a daycare,” he says grumpily.

With a roll of his eyes, Naruto flicks his ear. “You're only saying that because Shikamaru hasn’t asked you to watch Shikadai yet today,” he points out. “And the second he does we’ll be making up the guest bedroom.”

Sasuke doesn’t deign to grace that with a response.

Sakura laughs a little, her head coming to rest on Naruto's shoulder, and when he wraps an arm around her waist she leans into it, curling her bare legs underneath herself. “It’s a good thing we like kids,” she says, and tangles her fingers with Naruto's as he pets Sasuke's hair.

“They only dump their spawn on us _because_ we like kids,” Sasuke points out, unimpressed, but he presses his forehead into Naruto's stomach, lets black and violet eyes slide open as he ghosts a hand up Naruto's leg. “Ours are the best, though.”

Naruto laughs, but he’s hardly going to argue. “I can't believe Boruto and Sarada are ten already,” he says, mostly to himself.

“Almost time to try for another,” Sakura says slyly, but the softness in her eyes says she agrees.

Sasuke makes an interested sound, rolling onto his back to look up at Sakura with a raised brow.

Immediately, Sakura makes a face at him. “Don’t look at _me_ , Sasuke,” she retorts. “Naruto _likes_ being pregnant. I did it once, and I'm not doing it again.”

Naruto has to swallow before the words will come, but…it’s a tempting thought. He loves their kids, and he always has wanted a big family. Shinobi don’t tend towards having lots of kids, not anymore, but…he and Sakura and Sasuke have never been ones for tradition.

“Hard to rebuild your clan with only three kids,” he points out, and Sasuke's fingers stroke his leg. There’s heat in his eyes, but it’s soft, something gentle as he presses a kiss to bare skin.

“You’d be okay keeping a female body for that long again?” he asks.

Naruto shrugs. “You know it doesn’t matter to me. That’s got nothing to do with what I am, and male is just the same as female. I've been feeling more like a girl lately, though, if that makes it easier for you to decide.”

“We can talk about it more later,” Sakura proposes, and ruffles Sasuke's hair. “When we’ve all had coffee and gone grocery shopping. I want hot pot tonight.”

“You're so demanding,” Sasuke complains, like they can't see the curve of his smile.

“You're the one who married me,” Sakura reminds him.

“I married both of you,” Sasuke mutters, stubbornly closing his eyes again. His hand slides down Naruto's leg to Sakura's ankle, and he strokes the skin there gently.

“And we’re forever grateful,” Naruto says, grinning. It could be teasing, a bit of sarcasm, but…it’s not.

He means it with all his heart, and from Sakura's smile, from Sasuke's warm hum, they know it just as well as he does, and entirely agree.


End file.
